Lola Rosa has been a fixture of vegetarian dining in the McGill Ghetto for more than a decade. It was such a favourite with students that it opened a lunch counter right on campus last year. This third and newest location, launched in December, brings it uptown and upgrades the restaurant’s image, a reflection of the changing profile of vegetarian dining in the city. I get the sense that the brand — and it is now officially a brand — is growing up with its customers, for whom vegetarianism isn’t just something worthy of a college try during the school days, but a continuing lifestyle.

Whereas I remember the Milton location as cosy and quirky, with a more-than-decent version of the requisite black bean burrito, Lola Rosa Park is more of a full-service restaurant that puts familiar reference points in shiny new packages. While there are still the touchstones (like that burrito), here Philippe Carbone’s dishes are a bit more developed, as is the selection of draught beer and cocktails. The surroundings are slicker, too. Ambience-wise, I’d call this a vegetarian brasserie, even with the mind-body artwork on the walls. Certainly, the ghosts of the Mexican party place that preceded it are gone; it has been de-Zaziummmed.

There was a sense of excitement in the room — and a big room it is — on a Thursday night. I didn’t anticipate being asked if we had reservations before being shown to one end of a long rosewood table, which we shared with a couple, sliding onto benches with cutaway backs and colourful cushions.

They still make some good nachos, better than I recalled. A lot gets thrown at those salty and crackly fresh corn chips — corn, black beans, tomato, sour cream, avocado, salsa — until they’re laden with toppings, but not sogged down. A kale salad of curly greens, slightly too-soft beets, radish and apple, in a raspberry vinaigrette was green, fruity and not too sweet, and textured with nutty pumpkin seeds and tiny dots of quinoa and berries. A bigger bowl would improve the optics, though.

We enjoyed a risotto-like main course with mushrooms, chard and homemade seitan (they do tempeh in-house as well), enriched with cream and white wine.

But it was Lola Rosa’s hemp burger that really impressed. Starting with the presentation, borrowing the wooden board concept from charcuterie slingers. Stacked and steaming in a glossy bun, the patty itself was made of hemp, chickpeas and lentils for a squishy, moist, ripe-tasting filling. (I am actually not going to use the word earthy to describe it, because this is not its main purpose in life.) The strata were stacked one on top of the other: barbecue sauce, guacamole, tomato, and pickle, among other things that work well together. On the side: slaw and chickpea fries. Built up log cabin style, these were bendy, light, puffed out under a thin skin, for a consistency unlike what I’ve had in panisse or other versions thereof. Weird, but we liked them, and set about dunking them in vegan mayo with a splash of tamari soy.

We appreciated when our waitress nose-crinkled at the mention of vegan poutine; the tapioca cheese works better in an application like a quesadilla, she noted. But if you’re a vegan who has repeatedly watched people bliss out over a pile of the stuff, the fact that this place sells an animal-product-free version is the kind of thing that makes you squeeze a restaurant writer’s arm tightly and look deeply into her eyes (as happened to me recently). While I wouldn’t say it’s must-do dish, it demonstrates the extra effort here: not just potato, but also sweet potato fries mingling with cheese curds and dark mushroomy gravy that looked grainy but didn’t feel it.

Although we stuck with crème brûlée (given a spin with ginger and basil), all the desserts sounded appealing, including a cheesecake in a Mason jar and choco-coco pie.

Lola Rosa is a very likeable restaurant that mirrors the way more of the public is eating now. Owners Pascal Hourriez and Eric Bieunais say they want to create vegetarian restaurants for non-vegetarians. (Like a lot of local veg resto proprietors, they themselves are diet-conscious but not vegetarians, and believe that people should eat less meat.) With Carbone in the kitchen, its meat-free cuisine is not about substituting with processed mock meats, and there’s lots of flexibility and dietary sensitivity: you can choose smaller or larger portions, vegan or gluten-free options.

There’s certainly demand for it, perhaps more so now that Commensal has gone “flexitarian,” and people like my dinner date are boycotting it.

“The one thing I expect from a vegetarian restaurant is that it doesn’t serve meat. Is that too much to ask?” she ranted. (Totally agree; my last visit, squinting at the signs to see if the pale matter on the spinach salad was artichoke or chicken, I felt I was at the trough.)

Lola Rosa’s is soon to launch a food boutique on one side of the new space. It ought to do well, too — and I hear there will be picnic boxes when the weather allows, which is to say soon.